We're Not Together
by dpluver
Summary: A simple hug turns out to be a horrible mistake. Jazz's parents catch her hugging the ghost boy and as usual, they jump to crazy conclusions. Now Danny can't get within 20 feet of his sister without being zapped. Sibling bonding & running from the parents
1. The Hug That Shouldn't Have Happened

**Well I guess I'm back in one of those "let's see how many fics I can write without going insane?" moods. But it's always fun to nerd it up and post new fanfics in your college classes, amiright? This will mostly be a Danny/Jazz bonding fic, no incest, bleh. Enjoy! :)**

"Jack, you really shouldn't install the anti-ecto microchips until we've completed the analysis on the belt's defense mechanisms!"

Jack Fenton beamed at his wife. "Aw, Maddie, I know you like doing things the 'right' way, but you gotta trust me on this one!"

With that, he popped the tiny microchip inside the buckle area and shouted his battlecry as he held it up to the luminous white lights in the lab. Nothing happened. Not even a fizzle.

With a sigh of disappointment, Jack tossed the belt off to the side, where it landed harmlessly on a nearby table. However, just after it landed, there was a tremendous explosion sound. Jack ran for cover in the Anti-Ecto Pod, but the lab was oddly calm.

"Danny!" they heard their daughter's panicked voice coming from a few floors above.

"Jack, the kids! What if there's a ghost in the house?"

"I'm on it Maddie!"

The couple grabbed a few lightweight yet deadly weapons and charged up the stairs, ready to save their kids from whatever evil ghost threat was attacking them this time. As they reached the first floor of the house, they could hear a boy's muffled yells and grunts of pain intertwined with ghostly laughter. And another explosion.

Maddie, being the faster of the two, made it to the top of the stairs first. Jack nearly ran into her, however, as she completely stopped when she reached the top. Elbowing her obnoxiously panting husband in the ribs, Maddie turned to him and flattened herself against the wall and readied her weapons for attack.

"Jack, it's the ghost boy! In our house!"

Jack's expression turned from that of exhaustion to rage. "And he's attacking our kids!"

Maddie shushed him and peered around the wall once more. Their kids were nowhere in sight, but the ghost boy was there, facing off against some giant ghost with metal armor and fiery green hair. How on earth either of those two had managed to escape the Ghost Zone was anyone's guess. But Maddie was positive she had heard Jazz scream Danny's name. The only problem was finding her son without getting overpowered by these two ghosts. She hoped he wasn't injured; Danny had enough injuries of unknown causes as it were.

Just as Maddie targeted two of her ecto-weapons at the ghost boy's head, Jazz's door opened. Maddie would have screamed for her daughter to run for safety if it hadn't been for the completely calm expression on the girl's face. Not only that, but she had a Fenton Thermos in her hands. _Who had given her one of those?_ Maddie kept her weapons ready to fire at the ghost boy, but now that Jazz was just behind the line of fire, Maddie couldn't risk missing her target and shooting her child instead!

"Say goodbye Ghost X!" Jazz said excitedly, sucking the enraged ghost into the thermos with ease.

Maddie could feel her jaw dropping. Not only did Jazz know how to work a Fenton Thermos better than Jack or herself, but she had chosen to capture the "Ghost X" specter and instead of catching the other ghost in the proximity, she was now putting the lid back on the thermos! Shooting a glance at Jack, Maddie could see that he was feeling as dumbfounded as she was. Neither of them dared to move. Jazz didn't look as though she was in any danger; if anything, she was _much_ too comfortable with her current circumstances for Maddie to believe this was the first time her daughter had ever aided in ghost combat.

Then, like most things that happened in Amity Park, the situation went from bad to worse.

"For the millionth time Jazz, it's _Skulker_. Remember when they used to call me Inviso-Bill? Hated that, and I'm sure Skulker would grant your pelt a better location in his lair if you start calling him by his name. Other than that and the completely unwitty banter this time, I'd say good work, you're definitely improving."

Jazz's smile widened at this and- much to both of her parents' horror- she took a step forward and _hugged Danny Phantom!_

Neither Maddie nor Jack could see the expression on the boy's face, but Jazz's told them everything they needed to know. When the ghost boy and their daughter released, the boy's body swayed a little to the side and he held the side of his back tenderly. Jazz's content expression transformed into one of concern.

"What's wrong?"

The ghost boy shook his head, clearly in pain. "Just a little sore. Skulker improved his aim, that's for sure. I'll be fine."

Maddie, Jack, and Jazz collectively gasped as the boy pulled his hand away from his side. His glowing white glove was coated with green ectoplasm.

"You don't look fine, come here," Jazz grabbed the ghost boy's wrist and pulled him into her room to get her first aid kit.

"NO!" Jack and Maddie yelled as they ran for the door. Their daughter may be a kind and caring individual, but when it came to dangerous ghosts like Danny Phantom, she could be walking into a death trap.

The couple ran for the door, with their weapons ready to go. They reached Jazz's room just as the door was about to click shut and Maddie kicked it open.

The ghost boy and Jazz hadn't gone very far into the room, and were completely knocked over by the force of the door slamming into them. Danny Phantom landed on top of Jazz's stomach with a startled yelp, and Jazz shrieked as his elbow accidentally hit her in the face on their way down. When the chaos had subsided, both of the teenagers looked up at the Fenton couple with wide eyes. Jazz looked horrified and the ghost boy had been so caught off guard that even his mouth was hanging open.

Jack and Maddie expertly trained their weapons right on his face, with their fingers waiting eagerly on the triggers.

The silence was painful to bear.

Danny laughed nervously. "Uhhh, this isn't what it looks like?"

**Let me know what you think! I've never written much about Jazz before, even though I really like her character and adore sibling bonding! Reviews of any kind are greatly welcomed and appreciated! :)**


	2. Tingling

**I can't believe how popular this is. I wasn't going to write chapter two until I was more up to date on my other stories, but I couldn't help myself (this is where I really get to start having fun). You guys rock!**

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><p>Seeing a vein in his mother's head practically bulging out from the sheer fury she felt towards his alter-ego, Danny figured they weren't buying his excuse.<p>

"Yeah, I think I'll just go now."

Before his parents could blast him into a pile of ectoplasmic ash, Danny flew through Jazz's wall and far out of sight. That had been _way_ too close. He wasn't gone for long, however, as a simple loop sent him over the top of the house and through the wall that led to his room. To avoid getting ripped apart, molecule by molecule, he immediately transformed upon entering his room. From the sound of his parents yelling at Jazz, things weren't looking too good right now.

"We _trusted_ you, Jazz! You were supposed to be the smart, responsible one!"

"Mom, he was injured-"

"How could you choose a ghost over your own family?" Jack said with a muffled sob.

"I barely know the ghost," Jazz lied, sounding irritated. "Why is it that you two are always blowing things out of proportion-"

"_We_," Maddie cut in, sounding angrier than Danny had ever heard her around Jazz. "-are doing our jobs as parents by looking out for your safety, young lady! And allowing the _ghost boy_ into our house and _helping him_-"

"I wasn't helping him, I was just stopping-"

"-oh don't you lie to us! We saw the whole thing!"

"Yeah, which means you saw-"

"-hey what's going on in here?" Danny entered the room, hoping his presence would calm his parents down and get them to stop yelling at Jazz. She really had been helping him, just like she always had ever since she officially joined 'Team Phantom.' Now Danny wanted to return the favor.

"You'll never believe it Danny," Jack said, setting down his weapons and shaking his head sadly. "Your sister knows Danny Phantom!"

Danny suddenly had an overwhelming urge to go and hit his head against the wall a few times but decided against it. Ironic ignorance could be so annoying sometimes. Instead he tried another tactic. "Doesn't everyone?"

Maddie and Jack glanced at each other uncertainly then back to Danny, who now looked very nervous.

"I mean, uh, lots of people at Casper High talk about him. I thought most people sort of knew him."

"But he was in our _house_!" Maddie exclaimed, still holding her ecto-weapons and looking dangerously close to firing them off in a fit of rage.

"Was he hurting Jazz?"

Maddie shrunk a little at this question before admitting, "No."

Jack, who for once appeared to be deep in thought, spoke next, directing it at Jazz. "But you were talking to him…then you hugged him…then you brought him into your room…"

Maddie's eyes suddenly shot open and she nearly jumped a few feet off the ground, startled by whatever conclusion her mind had come to. "You're dating the ghost boy!"

Jazz jumped up as well. "_WHAT?"_

Danny, despite the shocking accusation, couldn't help but laugh. It was so outrageous, more than any other crazy idea his parents had ever come up with. Only when the stabbing ache in his side returned- along with a smear of rich red blood through his white shirt- did he shut up. But seriously: him dating Jazz? Was his mom serious?

"This is no laughing matter Danny," Jack said gravely, missing the fact that his son was nearly keeling over on the floor in pain. He turned back to Jazz. "Jasmine, I can't believe I'm saying this but-"

"-you're grounded," Maddie finished for him, ignoring her husband's I-wanted-to-say-that expression.

"_Really_?" Jazz said, eyebrows raised and arms crossed bitterly. "You're grounding _me_, with my pristine track record of good behavior and honesty while you have nearly no proof to support your claims?"

"We're your parents," Jack said bluntly, as though that explained everything. Jazz didn't respond, knowing that the longer this conversation went on, the closer they would get to exposing Danny's secret. Of course, this didn't stop her from glaring at him after their parents left the room, muttering about some belt they needed to finish working out the kinks on.

"You can't be blaming _me_ for this?"

Jazz looked ready to tell him that yes, actually she was, but instead she sighed. "Just when I start thinking there is no way for them to get any weirder, they always manage to prove me wrong. Are you still bleeding? Let me have a look at that."

"Oh but _Jazz_, if I go into your room _like I have been for the past fourteen years_, they might think we're up to something!" Danny said sarcastically before giving in and following her inside.

"At least it's blood now, that's a little easier for me to manage than ectoplasm."

As she patched him up, Danny started feeling a little guiltier. Jazz was always there to help him out, whether it was distracting their parents, fighting a ghost, or first aid duties. Yet when it came to him helping her, there weren't too many marks on his record. And now, for the first time in her entire life, she was grounded. Because of him.

"All better," she said wearily when she finished her work. Danny gave her a light hug, after first checking the mirror to make sure he was _definitely_ Danny Fenton.

"Sorry you got grounded."

Jazz shrugged. "I'm viewing it as more time to work on the essay for my psychology final in peace. I'm thinking of going with an 'irrational deductions' theme, what do you think?"

Danny smiled. "That might work."

**oOoOoOo**

That night, Danny went to bed early. The fight with Skulker had left him pretty wiped out and now that one of his ghost fighting partners was walking on thin ice for a while, he needed to focus on preserving his strength. Getting a decent night's sleep for once seemed like a good way to go about doing that. The light in Jazz's room across the hall was still on, but the staying-up-late-to-maintain-straight-A's act was her thing.

Ignoring the pile of homework left untouched on his desk, Danny fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow. Lost in the world of his unconscious, things seemed to be calm for a while.

Until the tingling began.

He cringed in his sleep, wondering what that strange feeling in his left hand was. He unconsciously pulled his hand closer to his chest to escape the strange feeling, but then it got worse all at once: Danny felt like he was being electrocuted. Given that he had suffered through many shocks from ghost fights before, he knew exactly what was happening, but never before had it been _this_ painful. He yelled as he jumped out of bed, completely tripping over the bed sheet and falling to the ground, where he writhed in agony.

Danny saw spots clouding his vision, but he needed to get out of here. He tried transforming, but while in mid-morph, the shock intensified. Digging what was left of his stubby nails into his skin to keep from shouting out again, Danny haphazardly ran for cover. Nowhere in his room seemed to be safe. Everything around him was buzzing with electricity and his body was starting to feel numb from the sheer amount of high voltage shocks passing through it. He had no idea how much more he could endure before completely passing out or his heart failing from the repeated zaps it was receiving. Looking to the window, he saw his last resort.

Danny ran as hard as he could, turning intangible just before he hit the wall. His vertigo was completely off. Even though he had been attempting to jump out the open window and remain in his slightly less-painful human form, he had miscalculated by more than three feet. Only when he crashed into the ground in ghost form some fifteen feet away from his window did the electrical shocking cease. Still, his entire body was trembling violently from that rude awakening and his hair was frayed on all ends.

"What the heck was that?"

**oOoOoOo**

Sam Manson looked down at her watch as she approached the giant Fenton Works sign on the edge of the street. Danny was supposed to have met her an hour ago! She knew tardiness was his trademark flaw, but today the skies were clear of ghosts and it was nearly the noon. Not showing up and not answering her calls were just two of the ways Danny really pissed her off sometimes.

Sam marched up to the door and pounded on it. She was slightly taken aback when Danny's mom answered it.

"Oh, hi Mrs. Fenton…is Danny home?"

"He's probably up in his room."

Maddie, accustomed to Danny's friends coming over quite frequently, simply left the door open for the girl to enter on her own. Sam shut the door behind her and went up the stairs, mildly curious as to why Danny's parents weren't obsessing over some new Fenton device today. Instead, Jack was just sitting on the couch, looking a little glum, and Maddie was scowling at the television's recap of Danny Phantom news from the past week.

"I still can't believe she's dating the ghost boy," Jack muttered.

Sam, not watching her step, accidentally kicked the edge of a stair upon hearing this and lost her balance completely. Heat rose to her cheeks as she slowly got back onto her feet, uncomfortably aware of Danny's parents watching her strangely. Only the clumsiest of people would trip _upstairs_. But what Jack said deeply troubled Sam, causing her to break into a sprint down the hallway until she reached Danny's room. She knocked rather harshly on the door; she had a few peculiar questions for Mr. Phantom this morning.

"Danny, it's me, open up!"

No response.

Sam opened the door anyway and walked inside, peering into every possible hiding spot, despite the fact that her friend could have easily just turned invisible to hide from her.

"Danny, this is _not_ funny," she said angrily. "Show yourself!"

Still no response.

"Sam?" a female voice came from behind her. It was Jazz, looking like she had barely gotten any sleep last night. Just as Jazz walked out of her room to where Sam was standing near Danny's empty bed, they heard a terrible scream.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Reviews are either helpful, encouraging, or both, so feel free to tell me what you think! :)<strong>


	3. Like the Electric Chair

**You guys are amazing! Thank you for the comments on the last chapter, I hope you continue to enjoy reading it! :)**

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><p>It was coming from the closet. Sam threw the door open and saw Danny on the ground, twitching and rolling around, apparently in a lot of pain.<p>

"What's happening?" Jazz asked in a high-pitched voice over her brother's yelling.

Sam touched Danny; she didn't feel anything unusual, except that his body was now covered in sweat and he was shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly his eyes flew open. As though Sam and Jazz weren't even there, he threw himself intangibly through the nearest window, landing rather roughly on the asphalt down below. Only then did his screams become more like whimpers as he tried to pick his human self up off of the ground.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked from the window. Her voice was laced with concern. Out of all the times she'd seen her best friend get attacked, this was undoubtedly something new.

He just blinked at the girls, trying to regain clarity in his vision and calm his trembling body. Seeing just how much pain he was in, Sam and Jazz raced out to help him. Sam was in the lead, but as soon as Jazz came within a close proximity of him, he fell back onto the ground, holding his head and screaming.

"Get away from him!" Sam yelled at Jazz. Then she noticed something strange. Jazz was wearing a Specter Deflector. But that wasn't supposed to harm ghosts unless the wearer made contact with one, right?

Jazz, on the verge of panic, retreated immediately. Only when she was a safe distance away did Danny finally calm down.

Jazz remained where she was near the entrance of the house, too scared to get any closer to her brother. She'd seen him hurt before, but watching him in that much pain was almost too much to bear.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked him quietly after a few moments of silence.

Danny glared at her as he attempted to sit up. "What do you think? That's the third time I've been electrocuted since last night!"

"Do you think it might have anything to do with the fact that Jazz is wearing a Specter Deflector?"

Danny gasped. For the first time, he noticed the Jazz was indeed wearing one of their parents' highest pain-inducing contraptions. However, in the past, it had never worked from a distance. If this was a new and improved version, then Danny definitely didn't want to try and confirm this theory. His human heart could only take so many beatings before giving up, after all.

Sam helped him to his feet, but he backed away from Jazz instead of returning to the house.

"I think Mom and Dad modified it," Jazz said, trying to rip the belt off with no avail. "Last night, they told me it was this or a ghost shield over the house and I thought this would be a better option. I think this is part of their 'keep the ghost boy away from the Fentons' strategy."

Danny's shoulders sagged. His mind was still buzzing from the latest round of shocks and now he had to cope with a new threat that couldn't be solved with a Fenton Thermos. "So, my room…"

"I can sleep on the couch," Jazz offered sadly.

Danny shook his head. "Forget it. I'll figure something out. My closet's the only place in my room where I don't get zapped, but I'd rather not have to sleep in there again."

"You can stay at my place til we find a way to get that thing off of Jazz."

Danny smiled weakly at Sam. "That'd be fine, I guess."

"What's going on out there?"

The three teens looked up and saw Maddie peering at them from the Op Center. She didn't act like she had just seen her son intangibly launch himself out of the house, but she still looked suspicious when she noticed that Jazz was outside.

"I thought we told you not to leave this house unless it was for school, young lady!"

Jazz glared up at her. "I'm five feet from the house, what's the difference?"

Sam and Danny exchanged troubled glances. They'd never seen Jazz arguing with her mother before. Would the day's surprises never end?

"You watch that tone or I'll implant a Fenton Tracking Chip in you!"

"Nice. Taking 'over-controlling parent' to a whole new level!" Jazz snapped back.

"If we could trust you like we do Danny, we wouldn't have to take such drastic measures. We never see _your brother_ running around with ghosts or helping Phantom!"

With that, Maddie slammed the Op Center's window shut and Jazz sat on the steps to the house, looking more miserable than ever.

Danny grinned sheepishly at her. His mom had a valid point after all.

Sam, meanwhile, looked confused. "Should I even _ask_ what just happened?"

Danny sighed. "Skulker showed up in the house yesterday and Mom saw the whole fight."

Sam continued staring blankly at him. "So? I don't think I'm seeing the problem here, there are ghost attacks in your house all the time. Unless you mean she saw you change back?"

"No," Jazz answered for him. "She saw us together and now our parents think I'm dating Danny Phantom."

A look of realization dawned on Sam's face. "Oh. That makes much more sense," she blushed, trying hard to forget her slip up when she heard Mr. Fenton mentioning something about Danny dating earlier.

"Now I can't stay in my room and I lost one of my ghost hunting partners."

"Hey!" Jazz said indignantly, getting to her feet and starting to walk towards her brother before she saw the panicked expression on his face. She immediately retreated, and the weird twitching his hands were doing ceased. "Just because I can't get this stupid belt off and the key's probably under total parental lockdown doesn't mean I can't help anymore."

"Jazz face it, with me being zapped whenever I get too close to you, you're more of a hindrance than a help."

Jazz, looking like she was close to tears, said nothing. Instead, she went back inside the house, slamming the door behind her.

**oOoOoOo**

The next day at school, Danny was feeling bad for telling Jazz that she couldn't help anymore. It was for the best, however, as she couldn't be seen with him- lest her parents create a device to keep ghosts a minimum of a mile away- and he didn't want to be zapped again. It was excruciatingly painful, confirming his theory that his parents truly did not care if their inventions were harmful to their victims.

Finding the key had proven to be impossible, as his four-hour scouring of the lab had revealed nothing but some old weapons that must've been created before he was born and a lot of spiders.

At dinner, he had casually asked his parents if they could take it off of his sister, to which Maddie had replied, "Oh Danny, you don't need to worry about that! It only hurts ghosts!"

Danny's eyebrows furrowed as he tried concentrating on the quiz in front of him, but it was difficult to focus today. He'd finally managed a good night's rest thanks to Sam sneaking him into the guest bedroom at her house, but he couldn't possibly stay there much longer before his parents realised something was wrong. With the utter disregard for privacy that existed in his house, he wouldn't be surprised if they charged into his room that evening and found him out past curfew. Then _he'd_ be the one wearing the new and improved Specter Deflector, ensuring a quick trip to a permanent existence as Danny Phantom.

He shuddered at the idea of never being able to hide again. His human half was the only thing that kept him sane when the mobs of fans in Amity Park chased him around; if he were Danny Phantom forever, how would he hide then?

As he went to answer question #2, Danny felt his left hand twitch. He stared at his hand, wondering what that could've been. Then it twitched again.

And the tingling returned, moving past his hand and along his arm.

_No!_ Danny's mind screamed in horror as he inched as far out of range from the tingling sensation that he could manage without falling off of his chair. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be electrocuted. Not here. Not in class, where everyone was silently working on their quizzes!

But it was inevitable. Jazz must have been walking on the other side of the wall to this classroom, unaware of her half-ghost brother's presence in the neighboring room.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut, willing the feeling to go away. He dropped his pencil and gripped the edges of his desk as tightly as he could, but it was too late.

As the powerful electric shock came over his entire body, Danny screamed.

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><p><strong>I love cliffies. Leave a review? :)<strong>


	4. From Bad to Worse

**Thank you for all the enc****ouraging comments! You people are amazing, and updating this story is a true joy for me when I know many people are having fun reading it :)**

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><p>"<em>The String of Pearls<em>, Fenton! What is the matter?"

Danny could barely hear his classmate's frightened shrieks and teacher's yells over the buzzing in his innermost ear components. He had fallen out of his chair and could feel Sam trying to calm him down, but only when the shocking ceased could he return to normal.

It seemed like it had lasted hours, but in reality, it was just a few seconds. Too bad that was just the amount of time needed to convince his fellow students that he was borderline insane.

His body continued to twitch for a few minutes afterwards. Sam, acting quickly, had rolled him onto his side and was propping his head up in her lap to cushion him from further damage. His breathing was ragged but steadily returning to normal. When his vision cleared, he realized the entire class was staring at him. Great.

"Miss Manson," Mr. Lancer said, his voice quavering slightly as he tried to make sense of the scene before him. "Would you be able to escort Danny with the school nurses up to their office?"

Danny cringed upon hearing Lancer call him by his first name. He sounded scared.

"I'll be fine," he said weakly, trying to get to his feet to prove his point. He stumbled, but Sam caught him in time and helped him maintain his balance. All around him, they could hear the anxious murmurs of their classmates, and Tucker appeared to be talking over the phone with the school nurse.

"What just happened, Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked cautiously once the boy had walked up to the front of the class and was out of earshot of his peers. "Do you have a medical history of seizures?"

Danny shook his head. "It wasn't a seizure. Mr. Lancer, I'll be fine, really. I've seen worse."

Lancer paled at hearing this, but didn't comment further. He did, however, demand that Sam and Tucker take him up to the school nurse's office, just to be safe.

"Somehow I don't think telling them that my sister's anti-ghost belt zapped me again is going to be a good excuse," Danny said sourly as the trio made their way down the hallway.

"You can't lie, Danny. They'll know something's up."

"Well what choice do I have? I-"

Danny immediately stopped in his tracks. Sam and Tucker continued a few paces before realizing their friend had fallen back. They stopped too.

"What's wrong?"

Danny stared at his hands, which had begun to twitch. Was he _really_ losing his mind or was Jazz…?

Sure enough, Jazz rounded the corner a second later. She didn't appear to notice the trio, not until Danny yelled, "GET AWAY FROM ME!" and started sprinting in the opposite direction, anyway.

Sam felt sorry for her and sent the bewildered girl an apologetic glance before running after Danny. She was just trying to get through a normal school day like everyone else here; there was no way she could know just how much grief she had caused her brother so far.

Still, that didn't stop her from feeling a little hurt at her brother's reaction. He had yelled at her in front of a dozen other students, and now everyone either thought Jasmine Fenton was the worst sister ever, or that Danny was a madman on the loose.

"I feel like crud for doing that, but what choice did I have?" Danny asked his friends once they were a safe distance away from Jazz.

Sam and Tucker shrugged. They were definitely going to have to keep their eyes peeled for any signs of Jazz to avoid another incident like what had happened in Lancer's class.

"Hey Fentozone! Bwahhh!" Dash, across the cafeteria from the trio, pretended to fall and spaz out on the ground in a cruel imitation of what Danny had done earlier. Sam and Tucker, noticing their friend's eyes flashing green, grabbed his wrists and pulled him over to a table. For once, he actually struggled against their efforts, really wanting to make this the last time Dash Baxter ever made fun of him.

A blue mist suddenly escaped his mouth.

Behind the area where Dash and his other jock buddies were laughing, Skulker phased through the walls and shot an ecto blast at the blonde boy. The entire cafeteria erupted into chaos at the sight of Dash's crumpled form. The smoke from the ecto-ray was still rising from his body.

"Where's Danny Phantom?" Dash yelled in an oddly high-pitched voice as he scrambled to his feet and ran for safety with the rest of the masses.

Danny had been running for a safe place to transform, but he still hear Dash's plea. "Don't worry, Dash. The guy you mock, day in and day out, is coming to save you," he muttered irritably under his breath. One quick visit to the dishwashing room later, he transformed and flew out to fight off Skulker. It wasn't like the ghost to attack him while he was at school, and last he saw of the hunter, he was being sucked inside the Fenton Thermos. How had he escaped?

"Hey Skulker!" he yelled, trying to get the ghost's attention on him instead of the nerds hiding under the table nearby. "I'm all for giving Dash a taste of his own medicine, but-"

Skulker shot him before he could finish. That infuriated Danny. _I'll teach you not to shoot me when I'm talking to you!_

Danny threw an enormous ball of ecto-energy at Skulker, slamming him against the wall. He seemed to have been defeated for a few seconds, before a few new weapons appeared and fired at Danny.

"Think your little energy blasts can stop me?" the ghost mocked him.

Danny created a shield around himself as the latest round of blasts and missiles targeted him. "No, but I know what _always_ manages to stop you…"

He reached for the thermos at his belt, but it wasn't there. But it was always there. Where was it today?

"Jazz," he breathed, thinking back to the last time he had encountered Skulker. Jazz had sucked him in the thermos and ever since that night, he hadn't been able to go within twenty feet of her. In other words, she still had his thermos.

Hitting his hand against his head in frustration, Danny turned in tangible and made a break for it. Skulker followed closely behind, but it was harder to keep up with Danny in the smaller hallways.

"Jazz!" Danny yelled as he zoomed in and out of the locker-lined hallways, hoping she had the thermos somewhere. She was responsible and obsessed with helping him capture ghosts; he knew she had to have brought it to school with her.

"Looking for someone?" Skulker laughed from behind him. Danny whirled around to see Skulker pointing a deadly-looking weapon at Jazz, who was standing at the end of the hallway with the thermos in her hand. Danny would have cheered if her life hadn't been in danger at that moment.

"Don't hurt her!" Danny yelled, flying as fast as his body would allow him at the armored ghost. Seeing Danny advance, Skulker fired at her.

"NO!"

Danny instantly rerouted. Instead of aiming for Skulker, he was going to save Jazz. No matter how much it would hurt him to do so. Danny could feel it when he got within range of her- the tingling- but he ignored it. Jazz was trying to run, but she wasn't going to be fast enough. If she got hurt, Danny swore Skulker would pay dearly for it.

Just as the ecto-rays were about to annihilate her, Danny swooped in and grabbed her. They phased through a wall, but even going intangible was jaw-droppingly painful with the electrical shocks currently coursing through his body. He could barely see, and knew he was coming close to passing out, but had to get Jazz to safety.

They finally reached the outer part of the school. Danny put Jazz down as gently as he could before staggering as far away as he could manage from that belt of torture. Several news vans had pulled up and were torn between filming him and filming the Fenton girl's miraculous rescue recovery. When Danny turned invisible and flew away, everyone's attention centered on Jazz. From the air, Danny could see that she was moving, but from the hobbled way in which she was walking, it was obvious that she had gotten injured.

Skulker was nowhere in sight, but Danny knew that the next time they met, Skulker would rue the day he ever threatened Jazz Fenton.

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><p>"Maddie, your daughter is going to make a full recovery, she just needs a bit more rest. It sounds like she's had a rough day."<p>

Maddie and Jack looked anxiously between their sleeping daughter and the doctor.

"And the bandages?"

"Can come off once the burns have healed."

Maddie's eyes welled up in tears as she brushed stray hairs away from Jazz's face. From what she could recall, this was the first time a ghost had ever directly attacked one of her children. Even with the belt, Jazz had still gotten hurt. Maddie wondered if she and Jack needed to create more ghost protection equipment for Danny. She knew there must be an extra Specter Deflecter lying around somewhere in the lab. That would at least keep ghosts from coming near her baby boy. But he would still need more protection. If ghosts were targeting the Fentons, then her kids would have nothing but the best anti-ghost technology available!

The medical practitioner smiled at the Fentons. "You know, it could have been much worse. Thank goodness Danny Phantom was there to save her in time."

Jack and Maddie looked at each other in horror, then back at the grinning doctor.

"_WHAT?_"

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><p><strong>If you think s*** is hitting the fan now, just wait til the next couple of chapters. I'm honestly having WAY too much fun writing this and almost feel like I shouldn't ask for reviews, cause the more I get, the more I want to just ignore my other stories and update this one all the time xD But reviews are still greatly adored because I love hearing other people's thoughts on this strange story :)<strong>


	5. Fenton Family Night?

**My readers never fail to amaze me! Thank you for the great comments on the last chapter, I appreciate your support! (PS: Fuocoso, so you have wished it, so shall it be!)**

**And yay for having the flu. That means less motivation to study for midterms and more motivation to write fanfiction. I'll fail college, but my readers will still be happy. Good enough for me xD**

Danny sat in the kitchen, absentmindedly poking at the wilting salad in front of him. His parents had been gone all day, and Jazz was still recovering in her room. Somehow his parents had found out about him saving Jazz, and now they were in the lab, working on some new experiment that Danny knew would eventually spell disaster for him.

Only when the clock struck eight did his parents emerge from the lab.

"Hi sweetie!" Maddie said, hugging Danny from where he was slouched over in the chair. He momentarily panicked at her touch, expecting some sort of zap, but he was safe.

For now.

"What do you have planned for tomorrow night?" she asked him. Danny's eyes narrowed suspiciously. His mom's tone was _much_ too innocent.

"Probably hanging out at Sam's house. Why?"

"Well Danny, it looks like you're going to have to cancel your plans! We're having a family night!"

"Huh?" Danny nearly choked on his fork. Since when did the Fentons have _family nights_?

Jack grinned. "Since Jazz will be fully recovered by tomorrow, we figured we should go out and celebrate!"

"We never spend time together as a family anymore," Maddie lamented. "The ghost boy has been ripping apart our family, and this is our chance to convince your sister that family comes first! I don't know what happened to you two…you used to be so close! Now she keeps obsessing over that awful Danny Phantom and ignoring her poor little brother!"

"But-"

"No 'buts,' young man," Maddie ruffled his hair, failing to notice the growing panic written all over her son's face. "You're not getting out of this unless some sort of global catastrophe occurs!"

"And since that will never happen in a million years," Jack continued, slapping Danny on the back. "We'll be leaving the house at six tomorrow. Wear something nice; we're not going to that Nasty Burger joint you kids always hang out at!"

As Jack and Maddie left the room, Danny's head slammed into the table. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't get within twenty feet of Jazz, much less sit through an entire meal with her! Not to mention the added ghost defenses his parents were planning on adding to her arsenal of anti-ghost weaponry, against her will, of course.

He needed advice.

Transforming into his ghost half, Danny flew through the outer walls of his house and down the streets to Sam's house. She would know what to do, right?

He knocked impatiently on the window when he reached her house. She was listening to music through some heavy-duty looking headphones, however, and didn't notice. So, Danny just invited himself in anyway. _Then_ Sam noticed.

"Danny? What are you doing here? More trouble at home?"

"Total nightmare, is more like it. My parents are taking us out to dinner tomorrow night and apparently nothing short of an Earth-threatening disaster will stop them."

Danny floated over and sat on the bed next to her.

Sam frowned. "Can you just tell them you have plans?"

Danny shook his head. "I already slipped up and told them I was just going to be hanging out here. There has to be a way to get that belt off of Jazz before it kills me tomorrow night."

"Still no sign of the key?"

"Nope."

"Then I doubt getting it off will be possible without it. Your parents may have dumb inventions sometimes, but this one's pretty thoroughly developed."

"Yeah, no kidding," Danny shuddered at the memory of getting zapped several times. In his room. In his closet. At school. When would the torture end?

"Why don't you just tell your parents you're not dating her?"

Danny laughed. "Do you really think my parents will listen to whatever logic a 'filthy ghost' tries to offer them?"

Sam smiled sheepishly. "Well, no, but isn't it worth a shot?"

"Not if I actually _get shot._ I doubt they'll have long enough ceasefire for me to get in even three words. Especially after yesterday."

"And they're still not listening to Jazz?"

"Sam, they caught her red-handed. There's not much reason to trust her, even if she's been telling the truth this whole time."

Sam stared at him. Things were looking pretty hopeless right now, but they couldn't give up. "Why don't you just call Jazz yourself? She might have a better plan."

Danny's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea! Can I borrow your phone, though? I left mine at home."

Sam rolled her eyes and tossed him her cell phone. He immediately began dialing and waited a few seconds before Jazz picked up.

"Uh, hello?"

"Jazz, it's me."

"Danny? Is that you? It's been so long since I've talked to you! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Danny said as a pang of sadness washed over him. He had barely talked to Jazz at all over the past week, and to be perfectly honest, he was starting to miss her. Even if she could be an annoying know-it-all at times.

"Jazz, we need to get that belt off of you."

"Danny, don't you think I've been trying to think of any possible way to do that? It's useless. Nothing I've tried has worked yet."

"Yeah, well, either we figure something out or tomorrow it'll zap me into nonexistence!"

"Danny, calm down, we'll-"

"Jazz? Hello? Jazz?"

Danny looked at Sam anxiously. Why had Jazz cut off so abruptly? The cell signal had been fine just a moment ago. He looked down at the screen, which indicated that he was still connected to the other line.

"Jazz!" he spoke once more into the receiver. Danny was starting to freak out. It wasn't like Jazz to just stop talking like that. At the other end, he could hear a small scuffle and the sound of something- a door?- being knocked down.

Suddenly, the line went dead.

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><p><strong>*runs from mobs of anti-cliffie protesters* <strong>

**Thanks for reading. Next chapter will be interesting, to say the least. Review? :)**


	6. Suspicions

**Another round of thank you's to my lovely readers and reviewers from the previous chapter. I got back into DP fanfiction as more of a "writing practice" strat, but knowing that people are enjoying my stories makes me all the happier for coming back to the phandom :)**

**Enjoy~**

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><p>"Danny, calm down, we'll-"<p>

Jazz froze as someone tapped lightly on the door. She could hear Danny calling for her on the other side, but before she could respond, her door was blasted to smithereens. Her parents came running in, holding some heavy-duty wires and what appeared to be some sort of cross between the Fenton Ghost Gabber and the Fenton Finder.

Seeing the murderous expression on their faces, Jazz promptly hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Maddie snapped at her, though her tone of voice told Jazz that her mom already knew the answer.

"You…you wiretapped my phone!" Jazz exclaimed, throwing her cell phone across the room as though it had burned her.

"You're darn right we did," Maddie replied before grabbing the invention out of her husband's hands and waving it in her daughter's face. "According to this, you were just on the phone with Danny Phantom!"

"Do you really think ghosts use phones?" Jazz asked innocently, unable to lie her way out of this one.

Her parents glared at her silently in response.

"What's it going to take to convince you two I'm not dating the ghost boy?" Jazz nearly shouted, on the verge of tears now. It wasn't like her to lose her cool like this, but wiretapping her phone was taking things a step too far for her.

"We have all the proof we need to confirm it," Maddie replied coolly.

"Being that I'm clearly the most rational person in this family, don't you think I'd have proof that I'm _not_?"

Maddie crossed her arms and cocked her eyebrow. "Really? Let's hear it then."

Jazz bit her lip. Danny would kill her if she told them the truth, so _that_ option was out. But she didn't know how much more of these privacy-invading, door-destroying parental tirades she could handle before she went nuts.

Sighing, Jazz gave up. "I don't know. But I truly think you should reconsider whatever motivation you assume I have for wanting to date him. And by saying that, I mean, _there isn't one!_"

Maddie didn't look convinced. "Jasmine, don't play me for an idiot, I was a teenager once, too. You obviously think Danny Phantom is attractive!"

Jazz nearly puked at the thought of finding her own brother attractive. He wasn't ugly by any standards, but come on! Her _brother?_

"I do not."

"Then-"

"Jazz!"

The Fenton trio turned around at the sound of Danny's voice echoing from the foyer downstairs.

"We're up here, sweetie!" Maddie called out.

"Is Jazz okay?"

"Of course not! She's in a lot of trouble! In fact, could you come up here, Danny? I want to have a talk with you and your sister."

"Uh, I'd rather not," Danny quickly replied. "Can we talk later? I have...uh, homework to do."

Jazz waited with baited breath to see if her parents would buy that lame excuse. They all knew that Danny never actually worked on homework, didn't they? Much to her horror, Jazz was mistaken.

"Okay Danny, just make sure you find some nice clothes for tomorrow!"

Jazz groaned inwardly as her parents reverted their attention back to her. She had nearly forgotten about their stupid dinner plans for tomorrow night; how was her little brother going to get out of this without getting shocked to death?

Watching glumly as her dad clipped on some ghost zapping band onto her wrist, Jazz figured she would have to trust him to come up with something.

**oOoOoOo**

At 5:45pm the next day, Jazz was waiting downstairs with her parents. The new and improved Specter Deflector stood out awkwardly against her dressy black pants and maroon sweater, but her parents wouldn't remove it under any circumstances. They were determined to have a Danny Phantom-free evening and that was final.

Jazz chewed on her lip nervously as she heard Danny's bedroom door slam shut and footsteps came closer to the edge of the stairway. She didn't even realize her hands were shaking until her dad asked her why they were doing that. She told him it was caffeine overload from a late night of studying.

Her eyes widened with every step Danny took down the stairs, getting closer and closer to his doom. His expression was oddly neutral, as though facing the threat of electric shocks didn't faze him in the least.

"Danny!" Jazz blurted out just before he came within what she estimated was the twenty foot range on her belt. She backed up to give him more space- fueling her parents' suspicious glances- but Danny strolled over to where they were without breaking a sweat. Jack and Maddie, ignorant as usual, turned and got in the Fenton RV, leaving Danny alone next to Jazz.

She glared at him when he came within a foot of her. It wasn't a robot, nor was it one of his friends pretending to be him. And the likelihood of the Specter Deflector and other anti-ghost contraptions all simultaneously failing at once? Slim to none.

"You're not Danny," she hissed as she searched his seemingly familiar blue eyes for signs of resemblance to the half-ghost brother she knew.

Danny- or whoever it was if it wasn't the real Danny- smiled lazily in return before following their parents into the RV.

On the car ride to the restaurant, Jazz couldn't stop staring at Danny. How was he so calm? Her logical mind couldn't decipher the puzzle in front of her, and to a person like Jazz, this was infuriating.

It didn't help that Danny was basically silent for the entire ride, while up front, their parents were ranting about how horrible Danny Phantom was for saving some kids in a burning daycare center a few days ago. At least _they_ were acting normally.

"Well…isn't this fun? We could always use more family time like this," Jack said at dinner after they had all suffered through several minutes of awkward silence. Jazz refused to talk to Danny, as she still didn't believe that boy sitting across from her could possibly be her real brother. Meanwhile, Maddie was frustrated with Jazz for treating Danny like that, and wouldn't speak to her until she started acting nicer towards her brother.

With nobody engaging in any sort of conversation, Jack found himself growing bored and in desperate need of entertainment. That, of course, only meant talking about one subject: ghosts.

"So uh, where's that Danny Phantom kid been, huh? Haven't seen him in a few days," Jack commented to no one in particular.

Maddie glared at him. "Jack," she said sharply. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to talk about that?"

"No!" Jazz cut in, then turned to look at Danny, who now looked amused. "I agree, Dad. Where _ever _could he be?"

"Wanting to see your _boyfriend_ so soon?" Maddie asked sardonically, squeezing the metal fork in her hand so tightly that it started to bend.

"We're _not_ dating!" Jazz and Danny snapped in unison. Jazz stared across the table in horror at her brother as his hand flew to his mouth.

"What'd you say?" Maddie and Jack's attention suddenly centered on their son.

"_They're_ not dating," Danny replied anxiously. "Why? What'd you think I said?"

Maddie stared at him oddly for a moment, then shrugged it off. "Don't be fooled by your sister, young man. She's hiding some big secrets from this family and ought to be ashamed of herself!"

Danny winced at the secrets part then darted a quick look at Jazz. She looked irritated, as usual, but had since given up trying to convince her parents that she was telling the truth.

He tried smiling reassuringly at her, but that disappeared as soon as he noticed the ghost standing several feet behind her and his dad.

_Oh no, not here, please..._

"Duck!" he yelled just as it shot a deadly pink ecto-blast towards them. They came in rapid fire succession, but thanks to Danny's warning, Jazz had found cover just in time. With all of that anti-ecto equipment locked onto her body, she was guaranteed to be safe, anyway.

Tables and chairs were blasted in all directions, and the screaming restaurant patrons found themselves trapped inside after the massive buffet table crashed into the only exit. Frightened waiters and waitresses went running for the safety of the kitchen, while everyone else tried to find cover beneath overturned tables.

Jack and Maddie jumped into action at once, unsheathing an ungodly number of ecto-weapons from their evening clothes. Without their usual jumpsuits, however, they were still overpowered by the ghost. Especially Jack, who got blasted off of his feet three times before crashing into the wall and falling into unconsciousness.

Danny, who had been looking for a place to hide, was struck in the middle of the back by one of the stray ecto-rays just as he discovered a suitable hiding spot.

Jazz watched the scene from the opposite corner of the restaurant, unfortunately more than twenty feet away from the attacker.

"DANNY!" she yelled as the blast hit him squarely in the back, sending him to the floor where he remained, unmoving.

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><p><strong>Vagueness ftw. Things will be cleared up, I promise, and I'll update this as soon as I can. In the meantime, I'd like to shamelessly plug my story, "Going Home" for those who haven't read it yet. Out of all 17 of my DP stories currently published on this site, that's my personal favorite. <strong>

**Oh, and the usual request: review? ;)**


	7. A Dangerous Proposition

**Thank you again for the reviews on that last chapter. Your questions will be answered here ;)**

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><p>Danny flew as fast as he could all the way back to Fenton Works. Jazz never hung up on him like that, not without a completely valid reason to, anyway. Something had to be wrong.<p>

"Jazz?" he called out in a panicked voice as soon as he phased through the front door. He would have immediately flown up to her room if he weren't concerned about the possibility of receiving another shock for venturing so close.

"We're up here, sweetie!" his mom's voice said cheerfully. It was coming from Jazz's room.

"Is Jazz okay?"

"Of course not!"

For a second, Danny considered bolting up there to see what had happened to his sister, before Maddie continued in the typical angry-parent tone, "She's in a lot of trouble! Could you come up here, Danny? I want to have a talk with you and your sister."

"Uh, I'd rather not," Danny called back, transforming back to his human self just in case his parents left Jazz's room to come talk to him. "Can we talk later? I have…uh, homework to do."

Danny knew they probably wouldn't buy the excuse, but no other good ideas fell into his head, and perhaps they wouldn't bother him if they thought he was actually finishing his schoolwork.

Much to his surprise—and great relief—Maddie finally said, "Okay Danny, just make sure you find some nice clothes for tomorrow!"

"Oh right. My final meal," Danny said miserably under his breath. He had less than twenty-four hours to figure out a solution, and he was still coming up with nothing. Tucker had suggested the Fenton Ghost Catcher, but Sam immediately shot that idea down, citing what a disaster that had been last time. Plus, the "fun" Danny would hardly behave appropriately at the nice dinner Maddie had supposedly planned for the family.

Feigning illness wasn't an option either, as Danny had used that excuse last month to get out of school the day the Ecto Exodus Alarm went off for the second time since its inception. It had been four rough days of nonstop ghost fighting for Danny, using up whatever sick days he had left before Casper High suspended him for excessive absenteeism. There was no way his parents would believe that he got the flu twice in less than five weeks.

Seemingly out of options, Danny did not sleep well that night. Using shoes and crumpled up shirts as a makeshift pillow in his closet probably contributed to this insomnia, but his impending electrocution was weighing heavily on his mind as well.

Whenever he _did_ manage to fall asleep, he would be quickly reawaken from nightmares of Jazz's belt zapping him while she watched her brother die slowly from across a fancy dinner table. He woke up drenched in his own sweat after every nightmare, even though it had been a while since the belt zapped him last.

"We'll figure something out before tonight," Sam promised him throughout the day at school. Danny gained little comfort from her words, though he couldn't blame her for at least trying to calm him down. Worst case scenario was telling his parents his secret, though since that opened up a whole new can of worms—as well as potentiality for even more attacks if they took it the wrong way—Danny wanted to avoid that option at all costs.

"Students," the school announcer's voice suddenly rang through the halls. "Do not forget the school-wide assembly at noon in the gym today. We will be having a special guest come to speak with us and would like everyone in attendance."

"We have an assembly? Since when?"

"You were out fighting Ember when Lancer announced it last week," Tucker informed him. "It's probably just some lame career thing or standardized testing pep talk."

Danny sighed. At least this would get him out of history class today. He had forgotten to finish an essay for that class, as usual. Besides, how bad could a stupid school assembly be?

**oOoOoOo**

"Students, please help me welcome our guest. Amity Park's own, Mayor Masters!"

"Of _course_," Danny growled to nobody in particular. He and his friends were sitting near the top of the bleachers, but even while he was trying to hide, Vlad was smirking directly at him.

"It's such an _honor_ to be welcomed here, Principal Ishiyama," he oozed in his sickeningly sweet politician's voice. "And to see all these bright young teenagers before me today..."

Danny tuned him out as his mind started putting some pieces together.

The Specter Deflector.

The shocks.

Vlad.

Sam and Tucker stared at him strangely as a huge grin appeared on his face. It wasn't like Danny to be happy whenever Vlad was around, unless he was pranking the older man or trying to make his life miserable. They tried asking Danny, but he immediately shushed them and remained relatively attentive for the remainder of their egotistical mayor's speech.

Towards the end of the speech, Danny darted a furtive glance to the students around him to check that nobody else was watching and fell backwards. Sam and Tucker gasped as their friend disappeared down the backdrop of the bleachers, but knew he was okay as soon as they saw a flash of light.

Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed by Vlad, who actually slipped up in his closing comments as he watched young Daniel purposely sneak away. His defenses were now on high alert, as he was certain the younger halfa was up to something.

"Everyone, could you thank Mr. Masters one more time for coming here today?" Ishiyama chippered as she shook Vlad's hand.

There was a dull rumble of applause from the bored students, but Vlad hardly noticed the lack of affection from the students. He glared up at Danny's friends, just to get across that he knew their friend was up to no good. They stared back with blank expressions; they had as much of an idea of what was going on as Vlad did.

He continued to carefully watch the two teens as he made his exit with the high school's principal, but Daniel was still nowhere in sight. Only when the school administrators bid Vlad farewell did two intangible hands pop out of the ground and pulled him through the front steps of the school.

He was brought to a meaty-smelling basement, and his suspicions were confirmed when his vision cleared from the fall: Danny Phantom was floating right in front of him.

However, instead of the usual look of anger or hatred or what have you, Daniel looked worried. Scared, even.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded as he transformed to confront his irksome opponent.

"Wait! I'm not here to fight," Danny said, holding his arms up as a peaceful gesture just as Vlad was preparing to fire a pink ecto-ray at him.

Vlad threw back his head and laughed. "You kidnap me and throw me into this carnivorous dungeon and you expect me to believe that you're not seeking a fight?"

"I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need your help."

Vlad looked highly amused now. "_My_ help? And what makes you think I'd be so willing?"

"The Gluteus Plasmius-"

"_Plasmius Maximus_-" Vlad snarled.

"Whatever. It cancels out ghost powers right? Well I need it before five-thirty tonight."

Vlad stared at him for quite some time. His expression was unreadable, though he looked like he was on the verge of either punching or laughing at Danny.

He did the latter.

"Oh come _on_," Danny crossed his arms in exasperation. "Is it possible for you to laugh _without_ sounding completely evil?"

"No!" Vlad shouted as he grabbed Danny by the neck and threw him at a nearby metal pipeline. As Danny painfully picked himself up off of the ground, Vlad continued, "I am intrigued by such a proposition, though what is my motivation?"

Danny bit his lip. He hadn't really thought this through properly, but he thought the motivation was clear and simple: "No Danny Phantom for three hours. Think you can handle protecting your fair city, Mr. Mayor?"

Danny really hated the evil smirk that was appearing on the older ghost's face. He was nearly certain that something bad would come from this, but his parents had weapons and had fought off Plasmius before, right? Albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, but at least nobody had been injured.

He now realized how stupid it was to come to his own archenemy for help, but Danny had been getting desperate, and Vlad's evil little contraption was actually just what he needed for this evening. Horrific scenarios were replaying over and over in his head, but there was no going back now.

After several moments of silence, Vlad nodded.

"Very well."

The smirk did not leave his face.

**oOoOoOo**

Danny said nothing on the ride to the restaurant. He knew Jazz was highly suspicious of him right now, and he would explain later. But right now, he was walking on eggshells and didn't want to tempt fate by revealing his incomplete plan. He would glance down at his watch every few seconds, as though worried that time would speed up and his three hours of full-human normalcy would be over.

With just two hours and twenty four minutes left, what was the worst that could happen, really?

Well, for starters, he almost blew his cover when he instinctively said, "We're not dating!" after his mom accused Jazz of doing so for what seemed like the billionth time that week. Danny immediately covered his mouth, horrified that he had let such an admission slip out.

"What'd you say?" his parents asked, directing their attention away from Jazz and squarely onto him.

"_They're_ not dating," Danny corrected himself before shakily adding, "Why? What'd you think I said?"

His mom still looked skeptical, but didn't dwell on the slip-up for too long. "Don't be fooled by your sister, young man. She's hiding some big secrets from this family and ought to be ashamed of herself!"

Danny felt a wave of guilt pour over him with the secrets comment. If they thought the secrets _Jazz_ was hiding were bad, then he knew he'd be _toast_ whenever they found out about his true identity. He tried smiling at Jazz to cheer her up—even with her obvious doubt in regards to whether or not he was the real Danny Fenton or not—but his smile instantly disappeared when he saw a familiar ghost floating behind his dad and sister.

"Duck!" he yelled just as Vlad shot a deadly pink ecto-blast towards them. Jazz and Jack found cover just in time to watch the chairs they were previously sitting in get blown to bits by the ghost rays.

His mom sprang into action and his dad followed suit after picking himself up off of the ground. Even loaded with Fenton weaponry, Jack was no match for Plasmius, but at least Maddie was safe from ecto-blasts.

Amidst the screams and clattering of dishes hitting the ground all around him, Danny crawled for a safe place to hide. He mentally kicked himself as he went along; Vlad had this in mind all along, how could he have missed that? Of _course_ the evil halfa would use this as an opportunity to mock him and reaffirm the idea of Danny Phantom's incompetence as a town hero. He saw Jazz hiding on the far side of the restaurant, untouched by any of Vlad's assaults. She was so boggled down with anti-ghost tech that there was no way Vlad could even come near her without some serious repercussions. Danny's only concern now was his dad, who seemed to be taking quite a few hits by the looks of it.

Out of nowhere, a blast suddenly struck Danny in the back. Having been so concerned with ensuring that the other people in the restaurant got to safety, he had left himself exposed to attacks. And given his weakened human state, Vlad had taken advantage of this easy target.

Within seconds, Danny collapsed and everything turned to black.

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><p><strong>Next chapter: what will happen to Danny? <strong>

**Let me know what you thought ;)**


	8. Countless Injuries

**Thank you for the comments on the previous chapter! I'm not sure how long this story will be, though I'm guessing no more than 14 or 15 chapters. Enjoy~**

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><p>Jazz didn't need to think twice before running over to where her brother had collapsed beneath an overturned table. She heard her mom yelling for her to take cover amidst the chaotic ecto-blasts, but right now the only thing on her mind was keeping Danny safe. No explanations came to mind for why he was acting like a full human, but right now, that just didn't matter.<p>

Vlad, obviously still miffed at her for the Ecto-Skeleton incident, looked ready to fire several ghost rays at her as she sprinted over to Danny. Thinking quickly, Jazz made a quick detour and ran _at _him. Vlad was shocked by this move, both metaphorically and, a moment later, literally. The electrical energy reverberating from her Specter Deflector was so powerful that the older ghost couldn't even fight back if he tried. Feeling brave, Jazz stayed as close as she could to him until she saw her mom reviving her dad out of the corner of her eye. Once the couple had teamed up again, Jazz decided to let her parents handle their old college pal while she pulled Danny to safety.

"Danny please wake up," Jazz shook him, but he remained unconscious.

Seeing that Vlad was now gaining back his initial advantage in the battle behind her, Jazz quickly slipped her brother's arm around her neck and started dragging him toward the exit. He was heavier than she remembered him being, but then again, all the recent ghost fighting had built up muscle on the formerly-scrawny boy's body.

Summoning whatever strength she had left, Jazz managed to drag Danny all the way to the RV. Getting him inside without assistance would be impossible, so she gently leaned his limp body against the rear tire in the meantime.

Every time there was an explosion in the restaurant, Jazz would wince and move closer to Danny to keep him safe from his archenemy. It had been so long since she could even come this close to her little brother, but he was still in danger.

One night of normalcy was all she wanted. Of course, living in a family of ghost hunters meant that, naturally, something had to go wrong every single time. Even if it was more Vlad's fault this time than her parents'.

Jazz observed Danny for quite a long time. She fondly brushed aside a few stray black hairs, then admired the peaceful look on his face. Why couldn't he ever look like this while awake?

"You're going to be okay Danny," Jazz promised him, squeezing his hand lightly.

Suddenly, his fingers twitched in response.

"Danny?" Jazz whispered.

"Jazz?" he mumbled back sleepily. His head stirred slightly, but it was another several seconds before he could open his eyes.

He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. Upon realizing who was sitting in front of him, Danny yelped and tried jumping backwards. Instead of escaping however, this merely caused him to slam his head into the rear metal bumper.

"Danny!"

His sister pulled him in for a hug while he was trying to massage the throbbing pain from the back of his head. He reluctantly allowed the embrace, and even returned the hug after remembering how much he had been missing his sister's hugs.

After they released, however, Danny could see a million questions flickering behind her eyes.

"I-"

Just as he was about to explain what happened, their parents came sprinting out of the half-destroyed restaurant.

"Get in the RV, kids!" Maddie shouted.

Jazz helped Danny to his feet and they immediately did as they were told. Just before he shut the door, Danny saw Plasmius fly away, looking none the worse for wear.

_He's going to pay for that,_ Danny swore.

**oOoOoOo**

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Maddie asked him once they were a safe distance away from the restaurant.

The whole family looked as though they had just survived a nuclear detonation, minus the disfigurement. Jack's face was covered in bruises and his right eye had been swollen shut, prompting Maddie to take the wheel on their way home. Jazz was the least-bruised one in the family, though given the high-tech anti-ghost weaponry protecting her, this shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"I'm-" Danny absentmindedly looked down at his watch and yelled, "_No!_"

Maddie's eyes widened in the rearview mirror as her son unbuckled his seatbelt and unlocked the passenger door. On the dashboard, the speedometer read seventy miles per hour; what in the world was he thinking?

"Danny, what are you doing?" she screamed, slamming on the brakes just as he began opening his door.

Seventy...

Sixty-five...

Sixty...

Fifty-five...

Fifty...

Forty-five...

Danny jumped out before she had even slowed the vehicle down to forty miles per hour. Jack, Maddie, and Jazz all screamed at the top of their lungs as Danny disappeared, undoubtedly having hit the asphalt by now. There were dozens of cars following behind them, but much to Maddie's horror, none of them were zigzagging out of the way.

Within four seconds, the RV had stopped entirely. Unprepared for such a sudden halt, a few cars rear-ended them, but Jack and Maddie were too concerned for their son's safety to care. Auto insurance and driver's license information could be exchanged later.

"Danny!" Maddie cried, frantically searching the road for signs of her son's lifeless body. Her heart was pounding so ferociously that she felt like she was having a heart attack. Her baby boy just _jumped_ out of a moving vehicle! What was he _thinking_?

"Danny!"

Even Jack sounded terrified as he ran down the midsection of the road, looking for any sign of their son.

In the RV, Jazz had barely moved. She was cradling her knees to her chest and breathing abnormally fast. Her usually brilliant mind could not think of an explanation for what Danny had just done, and the shock of his action had completely paralyzed her. Tears formed at her eyes once more.

Why was it that, every time Danny recovered from one injury, he would get hurt again? The cycle repeated itself all the time; how many more beatings could his poor body take before his heart gave up in exhaustion?

She didn't want to go outside and possibly see fragments of her beloved brother's body scattered across the roadway, but one particular high-pitched shriek coming from her mom forced her out of the RV at once.

Fifty or so yards away, in the unused middle section of the road, her parents were kneeling down, hugging Danny. Jazz picked up her pace; was he still alive…?

Ignoring the gawking stares she was receiving from onlookers, Jazz jogged in between rows of stopped cars, all the way to where the rest of her family was. Tears flowed like waterfalls down either side of her face as she silently begged for Danny to be okay. From here, he didn't look as though several cars had hit him, but he didn't have his ghost powers! He would've been shocked one thousand times over at dinner if he had had his powers working properly; how could he have possibly survived that fall without them?

As Jazz neared her family, she saw Danny's arm twitch.

_He's alive?_

She would have ventured closer, but suddenly Danny began thrashing violently in his parents' arms, screaming in agony. Nearly every bystander in the area screamed as well, worried for the poor boy's welfare.

"What's wrong with him?" many panicked voices echoed around Jazz.

"Someone call 9-1-1!"

"The boy's having a seizure!"

_No...that's not a seizure,_ Jazz remembered. She had seen this happen several times before, particularly in the past two weeks. Looking down at the Specter Deflector, she saw that it was glowing green, a sign that she had come to believe meant that it was in the process of electrocuting a ghost. Or a half-ghost, anyway.

Unable to cope with the fact that she was—once again—the reason her brother was suffering through the torture of electric shocks, Jazz began running in the opposite direction. Tears blurred her vision as she ran past her family RV and towards a nearby park. There were dozens of trails here that would lead to neighboring towns. Actually, it didn't matter where they led, just as long as she was as far away from Amity Park as she could be. Far away from Danny, whom she never wanted to hear scream out in pain like that for the rest of her life.

She loved her brother. She loved her parents. She also loved that she acted rationally in most circumstances.

But this wasn't like most other circumstances.

Danny was constantly getting electrocuted because of her and who could say if the next one wouldn't finally kill him?

Jazz wasn't willing to take that chance. Especially if it meant that she would be the one inadvertently responsible for his death.

Promising herself that she wouldn't return home until these infernal anti-ghost devices were completely destroyed, Jazz continued running away from the blare of the sirens and into the dark forest on the outskirts of Amity Park.

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><p><strong>Meep. Not much else to report today, except that reviews are good distractions from homework xD<strong>


	9. Family Severances

**Sorry for the delay. Life has been hectic, but knowing that several people are having fun with this story is enough motivation to find the time to write! This chapter's pretty long, so hopefully the added length will make up for the time you had to wait for it. Also, trying something a little different for a change: the first portion (the part in italics) is a flashback (I made that quite clear even for people who won't read this author's note, hehe). Enjoy~**

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><p><em>Danny Fenton hated thunderstorms. After all, at five years of age, there wasn't much else to fear in the world and since Amity Park rarely had them, he had yet to grow accustomed to them. The threat of electrified bolts coming near or striking his home and the roar of thunder that sounded a lot like his nightmares about the monsters that lived in his closet were a deadly combination that often kept him awake during nights of poor weather. <em>

_This storm was particularly gruesome, as it had been going on for several hours and seemed to increase in intensity as the night wore on. Rolls of thunder grew closer and closer, until it sounded like the beast in the sky was directly above Fenton Works. _

_Danny was cocooned in a pile of blankets, but despite their warmth, he was still shivering tremendously. It didn't help that the power had since gone out, leaving him completely alone in the dark, without even the mild protection of his rocket ship nightlight. His parents were asleep—he could hear his dad snoring all the way down the hall—and other than the raging thunder, all was silent. _

_After another frightening roar, Danny yelped and jumped several feet in the air. He landed painfully on the hard floor on the left side of his bed. With tears blurring his eyes, he tore his way out of his blanket entrapment and blindly made a dash out of his room. He ran into a wall and tripped over a toy in the process, but with the help of another vivid flash of lightning, he made it out. _

_Now he was in the darkened hallway. A small whine escaped him as he recalled his dad's stories about how ghosts would sometimes visit them during the darkest, gloomiest nights. Danny had never seen a ghost before, but the last place he'd want to meet one would be in a pitch-black hallway without the comfort of a single blanket. _

_Letting out a cry of despair as another explosion of thunder rattled the house, Danny ran as fast as his little legs would carry him over to his sister's room. Thankfully, she hadn't locked her door tonight. His eyes had since grown accustomed to the darkness, allowing him to easily sneak over to her bed. Jazz was sound asleep—she had always been a deep sleeper—so Danny crawled under the covers at the foot of her bed and snuggled up against his sister's warm pajamas. _

"_Danny?" she muttered, turning over to face her little brother, who had just poked his head through the front end of the blanket and was staring at her expectantly._

"_Can I stay here?" he begged her with tear-filled eyes. _

"_Scared of the storm?" she asked gently. _

_Shuddering as the wind howled outside, Danny nodded vigorously. _

"_Okay, but just for tonight," Jazz sat up and leaned against the headboard as Danny moved closer to her and rested his head in her lap. She stroked his hair to get him to calm down, and within a few minutes, he had fallen into a peaceful slumber. _

**oOoOoOo**

Danny jolted awake from another recurring nightmare, one where his sister's Specter Deflector had electrocuted him once more. How long had it been since the last time that happened?

He looked around the room, seeing sunshine pouring through the window, and his dad, fast asleep, in a nearby chair.

"Dad?"

Jack immediately awoke at the sound of his son's voice, but instead of the usual, silly banter, he looked serious and withdrawn.

"Morning, Danny," he said glumly.

This troubled Danny at once. His dad had always seemed incapable of any emotion besides excitement and irritation; was that _sadness_ on his face?

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"Your sister disappeared yesterday," Jack said, choking back a sob but reaching for his handkerchief anyway. "And she's not at Vladdie's this time either. Your mom's out looking for her now."

Danny's heart sank. It wasn't like Jazz to just run off like that. She had done it once, but only after Danny had barked at her and sent her over the edge by humiliating her in front of the entire school. He was pretty sure he hadn't done anything to upset her this time, which only left one option in Danny's mind: she had been kidnapped by a ghost.

"I have to go find her!"

Danny tried getting out of bed, but his dad stopped him.

"Not so fast, Danny. You jumped out of a moving car yesterday! You need some rest."

"I did?"

It had all been so fuzzy, but within a few seconds, his memory came back to him and he did, in fact, remember jumping out of the Fenton RV just as his powers had returned. He was grateful for his good timing, as hitting the asphalt without intangibility to protect him could have been ridiculously painful. In light of the other injuries he regularly put up with due to ghost fighting, however, jumping out of a car moving at a moderate speed was hardly the worst of what he'd done.

"But Jazz-"

"Your mother's looking for her."

"No such luck," came a weary voice from the door.

Jack and Danny looked up to see Maddie, looking completely worn out, standing in the doorway.

"I scoured the entire city, she's nowhere to be found!"

Danny felt a sudden chill come over him. He wasn't sure if it was a change in weather or if the direness of the situation had finally hit him. Apparently that would have to wait, because his ghost sense then went off.

"Well I'm sure we'll find her soon. But for now, can you guys let me sleep some more? I'm still exhausted from my…accident yesterday."

Danny moved to get out of bed to urge his parents out the door, but there was no need, as Jack left at once and after a quick hug and embarrassing kiss on the forehead, Maddie exited as well.

Danny looked out the window. Dark clouds had replaced the sun, and his window was encased in ice. If this was who he suspected it was, this was going to be a painful fight.

**oOoOoOo**

Besides the faintly glowing clock that read 9:34am, Jazz could barely see anything in this room. The sun should have been up by now, but even the world beyond the thin curtains was dark.

She had taken a half hour bus ride to this place after hiking through the long, winding park the previous day, and her debit card only allowed her to rent out a cheap motel room for the night. With the banks closed today and not a single ATM in sight, she would have to wait a full extra day before transferring funds from her savings to her checking account. Even then, she wouldn't have much to live on for a while.

Planning this out had not been done properly—the first time in her life she hadn't done something absolutely perfectly—but protecting Danny was worth the struggles for now. The thought of her brother being thrown in harm's way directly because of her bothered Jazz to no end.

With little to do in this crummy motel, she quickly checked out and walked around town. It was still dark and cloudy out, but no hints of rain otherwise. Few people paid any attention to her as she moseyed along down the strange streets, without a clue or care as to where she was headed.

Only when she passed a television store did she stop. There was a live news report coming from Amity Park on one of the smaller screens; the big screen TV's were naturally dedicated to oh-so-important things such as Sunday football and pathetic 'reality' shows. The usual blonde reporter was standing outside in an onslaught of rain, telling the viewers how Amity Park was in the midst of a terrible storm. Jazz almost continued walking until she heard the strains of, "…can Danny Phantom save us now?"

Jazz instantly skidded to a halt and ran back to the screen. It was difficult to hear over the roar of football fans on the TV next to this one, but she continued watching as a shot of Danny fighting a familiar-looking ghost came onscreen. It was in the shape of a green twister and had evil red eyes that glowed menacingly after each assault on the ghost boy.

"Danny!" Jazz yelped as she watched her little brother get struck by a vicious bolt of lightning from the weather ghost.

A man behind her snickered. "Oh please, Danny Phantom? Why do they even bother reporting about him anymore? We got tired of that has-been ages ago."

Jazz whirled around to face the man. He was at least a foot taller than her and was covered in tattoos with disturbing images right up to his burly beard and mustache combination. He didn't look like one who would take lightly to confrontations, especially from a young teenaged girl, but Jazz didn't care.

"He is one of the greatest heroes of our time," Jazz spat, glaring up at the man without a trace of fear in her eyes. "Danny has done more for this world than you will ever know or appreciate, so if I were you, I would keep the insults to yourself!"

Surprisingly, the man backed off. Instead of replying, he awkwardly averted his gaze over to the football screen to check the score before strolling away.

The feeling of pride for standing up in her brother's defense quickly departed when Jazz returned her gaze to the small screen. Danny was taking hits and punches every few seconds, without seeming to gain any leverage on the ghost.

"Danny get out of there," Jazz pleaded softly.

Meanwhile, twenty or thirty miles away, Danny was locked in a fierce battle against none other than Vortex. He had been out here, fighting the ghost for quite some time, waiting for Tucker and Sam to hurry up with the thermos. With the raging winds and relentless downpour, however, it was difficult for anyone to get anywhere in this weather without the help of ghost powers.

Somewhere down on Earth, he could see the faintest outline of the Fenton RV; oh good, his parents had shown up, probably thinking Danny Fenton was safely asleep in his room. Too bad they were opting not to help out.

At long last, Danny noticed Tucker and Sam cowering under an umbrella in a nearby alleyway, with the thermos in hand. Taking a brief break from getting pummelled into the ground by Vortex, he raced over to his friends to retrieve the thermos.

His parents momentarily joined the fight, which distracted Vortex enough for Danny to easily sneak up behind him and suck him into the Fenton thermos. The foul weather immediately dissipated, and Danny floated back down to the ground, too exhausted to remain in the air. He barely had enough strength left to retain his ghost form, given the sheer number of shocks and hits he had absorbed today.

As soon as he touched back down on Earth, however, his parents had him surrounded. His mom and dad looked much angrier than usual as they held fast to their bazookas and other assortment of lethal Fenton weaponry.

"Where's our daughter, Phantom?" Maddie hissed, readying the trigger of her gun for firing.

Danny, physically tired and emotionally drained from Jazz's disappearance, needed a lot of patience to deal with them right now. But the moment his dad moved in too closely, and the gun brushed up against Danny's face ever so slightly, he lost it.

For the first time in his life, Danny shoved his dad away from him. Not lightly, either. Jack Fenton was not a small man, but with Danny's ghost strength, combined with the rage that was slowly starting to seep through the cracks of his sanity, Jack was knocked onto his back. Maddie herself was quite shocked by such an act of aggression from the normally-passive ghost boy, and even she took a step back when the boy's fierce green eyes turned to her.

"One," Danny said in the most controlled voice he could manage. Even then, he didn't sound quite like himself. "Your daughter and me? We're not together. Instead of jumping to insane conclusions after you just so happen to see us what you'd call 'hugging,' perhaps you should take some time to learn to be _proactive_ instead of _reactive_.

"Two," he continued, barely able to keep his anger from seething through his lips as he spoke, "I am going to find your daughter. Not because I'm in love with her—I'm not, just in case you have any lingering doubts—but because I want to know she is safe.

"And three," Danny closed his eyes, unable to withstand the hurt and confused looks coming from his parents. "When I find her and bring her home unharmed, you are going to remove any and all anti-ecto devices currently strapped to her. Jazz is a smart and honest girl; you should really listen to her sometimes."

With that, Danny soared into the sky, as far away as he could get from his parents. He didn't know where to start looking for Jazz, but he promised himself he wouldn't stop until he found her.

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><p><strong>I shall update as soon as possible, but I'm behind in a few of my other stories, so those *might* take precedence in the meantime. Let me know how I'm doing, as reviews are always great tools for me to improve not only my writing but plotting and characterization :)<strong>


	10. Shocking Revelation

**Thank you for the comments on the previous chapter! Sorry this took so long, November has been a _very_ busy month for me (I remember when I used to be updating my stories every couple of days! But alas, times have changed). I'm thinking this story will be 12-14 chapters total in length, just for future reference. **

**Enjoy~**

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><p>"Come on Jazz, I know you couldn't have gone too far," Danny muttered to himself as he walked down the lantern-lit streets of the suburbs on the outskirts of Amity Park. He had been combing through the entire city for the past twenty four hours straight. Whether it was flying through the sewers, invisibly sneaking into various buildings, or jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he had tried every tactic and searched nearly every inch of the city, but still no sign of Jazz. Of course, such thorough search and rescue efforts weren't necessary when a simple electrifying zap would be sufficient in determining Jazz's location. So far, however, he had felt nothing.<p>

As much as he hated the pain that he had come to associate with the quasi-chastity belt, at this point, it would have been a relief to be electrocuted because that would mean that he had found Jazz.

"Jazz?" he called out as he walked through a secluded park. He had been returning home for curfew each night as Danny Fenton, just to ward off suspicions, but he was still immensely frustrated with his parents and unfortunately, his snappish attitude came out whenever they tried talking to him. After a while, his dad simply stopped coming to his room, but his mom was definitely concerned with the sudden change in her son's attitude. She tried getting him to open up and continuously reassured him that Jazz would come home soon, but as soon as Jazz's name was mentioned, he would quietly ask her to leave him alone.

Danny didn't enjoy treating his parents this way, but the emotional strain of his sister's disappearance and the lack of sleep were really affecting him more than he cared to admit.

Oh sure, he would make curfew each night. At midnight, however, it was back to searching for Jazz. This left him with maybe two or three hours of sleep per night, not including naptime in Lancer's class the following day.

Obvious tactics—like calling her cell phone—had failed, and even his advantageous ghost powers were proving to be ineffective in locating her.

After four full days of scouring the city, Danny reached the conclusion that Jazz was no longer in Amity Park. Assuming she hadn't been kidnapped by a ghost—the chances of this were slim, as he had already shown Skulker how serious he was about protecting his sister the last time she ran away—she was probably in one of the neighboring cities. Wisconsin wasn't a likely option, as Vlad was now in Amity Park as well, so after several hours of tracing and retracing routes on a map, Danny packed up his gear and prepared to leave.

Luckily, it was a weekend, giving him all of Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday to go looking for her. His parents didn't question him any further after he brusquely informed them that he was going camping with Tucker and Sam, so as far as he was concerned, he was good to go.

For good measure, he brought along two Fenton thermoses, but that was it as far as his weapons arsenal. Whatever situations he may encounter would have to be faced with his natural abilities.

**oOoOoOo**

Jazz wanted to go home. Her checking account had been depleted and she only had eighteen dollars left to survive on. Without the protection of ghost powers, she didn't feel safe just sleeping anywhere, and she didn't have the willpower to attempt stealing food.

She figured she would go back to Amity Park this evening if she could catch a bus, but not without first checking to see whether or not anyone in this town was qualified to remove her parents' Specter Deflector. Jazz had tried everything short of a chainsaw at this point, but the belt remained firmly in place regardless of what damage she tried inflicting upon it.

There was one guy—a locksmith, he claimed to be—that offered to remove it.

"For how much?" Jazz had asked skeptically.

The man smirked and wagged his eyebrows at her. "How much you got?"

At that, she had hurriedly sprinted in the opposite direction. She didn't feel safe here. This wasn't Amity Park, where one of the most daring and selfless heroes would protect its residents from criminals and ghostly foes without asking for anything in return. Come to think of it, Jazz certainly wondered what kept Danny going. Day in and day out, he had people harassing him and complaining that he wasn't doing his job properly; what job? Was he being paid for what he did?

What really angered Jazz was when newscasters would blame him for not being able to stop crimes from happening in time. A burglary here, auto accidents there—there was no way her little brother could be everywhere at once. Even with his still-developing duplicative abilities. He needed energy leftover so he could attempt to live a normal life and somehow get through high school, but that was going to be a huge challenge if he kept up the unpaid, unrecognized hero work.

If there was a way to ensure that the belt would only shock Danny _Phantom_, then Jazz might have considered keeping it on as a mechanism to keep Danny in school and out of harm's way. Deep down, she knew her stubborn little bro would never give in that easily, but she wouldn't mind seeing him more focused on school and his family. Or at least _her_, anyway. Ghost fighting took a lot out of him, leaving him irritable and tired whenever he came home and she wanted to talk to him.

But alas, the belt worked on Danny while he was in his human form as well. And _that_ was Jazz's motivation to get the thing off as soon as possible then bury it in an obscure location so it could never be used to hurt him again.

"Easier said than done," she grumbled under her breath as she fumbled with a bobby pin around the lock. _Nothing_ was working, not even something that actually resembled the key.

It looked like going home and demanding for her parents to remove it was the only option left. But with nearly no money for transportation and no map nearby to plan our a route, how would she even get back?

"_Ghost!_"

Jazz jerked her head in the direction of the woman's scream. It was not an uncommon occurrence in Jazz's everyday life, but in a city other than Amity Park?

"Danny?" Jazz gasped as she saw what appeared to be Danny Phantom running down the streets, after a group of people. Something wasn't right, however: every few strides, he would send an ecto blast at a surrounding building, shattering its windows. Worse yet, he was blowing up mailboxes and intangibly stealing tires from cars; laughing all the way.

_That can't be Danny,_ Jazz thought feverishly as she sprinted towards the ghost whom she was now assuming to be an imposter. Danny would never intentionally damage anything, nor would he willingly frighten a group of people. And besides, there was no way he could possibly know his sister was out here, giving him no reason to come to this specific town in the first place!

"Danny!" Jazz tried to yell, but it came out more like a question than an angry call for attention.

From thirty or so feet away, the ghost stopped and stared at her. Jazz's stomach clenched at the sight of the unforgiving red eyes in place of the usual green. This moment of distraction was enough to get the herd of people he had been chasing down the streets into nearby buildings for safety, but now his target was directed at Jazz.

For a mere second, Jazz's eyes darted upwards at the sound of a helicopter flying overhead. It was from a news channel she had never heard of; probably ecstatic at the opportunity to cover their town's first real ghost attack.

"Y-you're not D-Danny," she said shakily as the ghost took a step towards her.

"Of course not," the ghost sneered at her in a nasally voice. "But who's going to believe you?"

Jazz hated how he looked _just_ like her brother. Come to think of it, however, this wasn't the first time someone tried impersonating Danny...

"I would!"

Jazz whirled around at the sound of the familiar voice. "Danny?"

"Hey Jazz," he smiled for a split second before yelling, "Duck!"

Jazz did as she was told and fell to the ground just as a green ecto-blast went flying over her head. Danny—the real one—sent back his own assault, knocking the imposter to the ground. The fight raged on for a few minutes without the usual witty banter. Misfired shots would occasionally burst through car windows, setting off their alarms, but thankfully none of them struck Jazz, who was in the most unfortunate position in the _middle _of the brawl.

Both of the ghosts were outside of the twenty foot radius that encompassed Jazz's belt, but it sounded like Danny was trying to entice the fake Danny closer to the spot where Jazz was still lying helplessly on her stomach on the asphalt.

"Oh come on, last time you told me you weren't going to mess with me anymore," real Danny said irritably as he sent another few ghost rays in his opponent's direction.

"What's the harm? Nobody here knows about the great Billy Phantom."

"It's PR, dude. _Danny_ Phantom doesn't like looking bad regardless of the town."

Jazz stole a glance at the other ghost, who now wore a dissatisfied frown on his face. The fighting had momentarily paused, but she didn't _dare_ try to get up. At least Danny knew to keep his distance and wasn't rushing in to help her up.

"Very well," the ghost said gravely. "I shall leave Billy Phantom alone. _However..._"

Danny and Jazz collectively gasped as the ghost, in a transformation that lasted all of two seconds, changed into Danny Fenton.

The siblings weren't the only ones who saw this, either: the helicopter's film crew had been avidly capturing every second of the dramatic fight against the two Danny Phantoms, as well as the subsequent transformation by the other, and there were at least one hundred or so spectators on the curb and observing from the safety of their homes.

Jazz anxiously looked from the smirking Danny Fenton imposter to her brother. His mouth was still hanging open in horror.

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><p><strong>Last time I checked, there's only <em>one<em> story on this site with Amorpho as a main character. Such a disappointment, cause he's one of my favorites. I'll write a oneshot with him someday, but for now, he's fun to play with as a minor character in my lengthier stories. **

**Next chapter: questions you probably have right now will be answered and Danny & Jazz have another big problem to overcome. *overly-dramatic voice* _Do they have what it takes? _**

**My goal is to update this within a week, but no promises. Two weeks, for sure. In the meantime, let me know what you thought :)**


	11. Well This Sucks

**Again, I find myself apologizing for the long wait. Amidst finals and planning an extensive trip to Europe, I've been devastatingly busy…my updates will be sporadic for a while, but I'm definitely going to be finishing all of my current works-in-progress, so don't worry! It'll just take 2-4 weeks instead of 2-4 days for updates now. Thank you again for your comments on the previous chapter, as well as your patience! Enjoy~**

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><p>The spectators didn't seem to notice the severity of the situation, but Danny knew it was too late to save himself: the television crew had caught everything. It was so miniscule, yet, the two second time difference it took Amorpho to go from Danny <em>Phantom<em> to Danny _Fenton_ was hard to miss. There had always been suspicious similarities between the two, but would the residents of Amity Park now be able to put two and two together and realize how such transformations were accomplished?

Even though they were at least twenty or so miles away from home, bad news traveled fast, especially in the Digital Age and with Youtube's obsession with ghost fights. It was almost guaranteed that someone would catch on, but Danny didn't have time to worry about that now.

"Well," he started in the most confident voice he could manage, despite the terror rising in his chest, "What are you going to do now? Just stand there?"

He knew Amorpho wasn't one for brutal fights, but he certainly loved putting on a show when he could.

With a Fenton thermos strapped to his back and Jazz—who was still loaded up with anti-ecto defenses—sitting between the two ghosts, Danny could only hope that the prankster would take the bait.

Luckily for Danny, Amorpho launched forward at once, only to fall helplessly into the electrical radius of Jazz's Specter Deflector. He screamed as the volts coursed along his body, scaring away any human spectators that had been watching in timid curiosity. The only humans left in the area were Jazz and the helicopter television crew hovering above the scene.

The magnitude of the shocks he was receiving and his inability to get away from them, thus prolonging the electrocution, were enough to force him back into his original form.

"Jazz, get out of the way!" Danny yelled, running forward with the Fenton thermos. Jazz immediately did as she was told in order to avoid shocking her brother as well, and within five seconds, Amorpho was securely trapped in the Fenton thermos.

The remaining crowd was dumbstruck; unsure if they should cheer or continue to panic at the sight of a ghost still in the proximity. Danny didn't really care; all that mattered was that he had found his sister relatively safe and sound. He wanted nothing more than to hug her and tell her how much he missed her. He wouldn't have even been embarrassed to do that in front of all these people, because deep down, it was true. But for his own safety—both physically and for the protection of his secret—he remained at a distance and settled for a weak wave.

At this point, he could only hope that his parents remembered what he had told them about bringing Jazz home; they were to remove the belt as soon as their daughter was back home, unharmed.

"Ready to go home?"

Jazz nodded vigorously. "Why don't you go _change your clothes_ and meet me later?" she suggested with a wink. Hopefully they were out of hearing range for the filming equipment, but they couldn't be too cautious anyway.

Danny smiled in return then disappeared. Above Jazz's head, she could hear the frustrated cries of the cameramen, but she was glad her little brother had the chance to get away. It really wasn't fair how little people respected his privacy, considering all the good he did for them in return. The fight had been brief, but she was already trying to come up with plausible explanations for Amorpho's transformation between the two Dannys. Her parents, stubborn as ever, would refuse the simple answer: it had been an imposter. Jazz would try it anyway, but she needed at least four more responses in her arsenal to ensure Danny's secret remained undiscovered.

**oOoOoOo**

The bus ride home was a lonely one. Danny had to sit in the very back, while Jazz was sitting directly behind the driver. She had tried convincing Danny to just fly home, but paranoid as ever, he refused to let her out of his sight until they were back in Amity Park.

Once they reached Fenton Works, Jazz was the first to walk inside. She had prepped answers for questions regarding both her disappearance and Amorpho's revelation, but her parents didn't seem interested in either subject.

"Good to have you home, sweetie!" her mom said, hugging her tighter than Jazz had ever been hugged in her life. She was surprised at their lack of interrogations, but nevertheless, she was relieved to learn that she wasn't in trouble.

"Danny Phantom saved me," Jazz said slowly once they were all sitting around the table. Danny was still pretending to be at Sam's house and would probably come home in an hour or so, giving her just enough time to convince her parents to rid her of the anti-ecto devices for good. "Can you _please_ take this awful belt off now?"

Maddie laughed. "Of course he did. We wouldn't expect anything less from your-"

"He's _not_ my boyfriend!" Jazz snapped, ready to bang her head against the wall until the sane family she tried convincing herself she lived with returned back to existence.

"Of course you're still in denial," Jack continued, "But Phantom isn't the Danny we're worried about anymore."

Jazz's head shot up at this. "What?"

Maddie silently turned on the kitchen TV and browsed through their recordings for a moment before clicking on a news channel. Jazz's heart sank as the scene between Danny and Amorpho—already as Danny Fenton—appeared onscreen.

"W-why are you showing me this?" Jazz asked nervously.

"Just watch," Maddie said grimly.

Jazz remembered the scene perfectly, though it was different seeing it from an aerial perspective, rather than being caught between the two ghosts on the ground. After Danny sucked Amorpho back into the thermos, but right before he went on to speak to Jazz, Maddie turned the TV off.

"Oh look, someone was impersonating Danny," Jazz offered weakly. Excuse #1.

They didn't buy it.

Maddie sighed. "We'd like to take the belt off Jazz, but now that we know your brother is a ghost, we just can't!"

Jazz muffled a snort. "What?"

"Did you see how the belt began electrocuting Danny just as he came too close to you? And then reverted back to his ghostly form? I can't believe we didn't notice before! No wonder he's been avoiding you lately!"

Jazz had never felt more confused or irritated in all her sixteen years of living. Surely it was not possible that anyone could be _this_ clueless. Let alone the people she was directly _related_ to.

"So let me get this straight," she said slowly, still unable to comprehend her parents' absurd logic. "You think my _brother_ was that ghost who got zapped by the belt?"

"We don't think, we _know_-"

"Jazz honey, your father and I are experts on this," Maddie interrupted her husband. "And I'm pretty sure we can tell our son from an imposter!"

_Clearly not!_ Jazz thought angrily.

"That clip was only further proof-"

"Wait," Jazz cut her off, "You didn't see anything before that?"

"There wasn't enough space to record the whole program. Why? Did you notice anything else worth mentioning?" Maddie asked suspiciously.

Jazz was torn. With her parents convinced that Danny _Fenton_ was a ghost—albeit the wrong ghost—she was pretty sure this situation would end badly for Danny regardless of her response.

As it turned out, there wasn't even enough time for her to reply: Danny walked through the door a moment later.

"Hey Mom, had a fun weekend, I'm just...uh, why are you pointing a bazooka at me?" Danny glared at Jazz, who was still standing in the kitchen, behind their parents' line of offense. He raised his trembling arms over his head in surrender, all the while wondering what in the world had happened in the forty-five minutes Jazz had been home alone with them.

With no good excuse ready and a lengthy explanation process looming in his future, Danny responded as anyone else in his hopeless position would have: he laughed.

"Well, this sucks."

* * *

><p><strong>One or two more chapters left. I haven't decided yet. Reviews are appreciated :)<strong>


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